Masters of Education: Adult Education-Training and Development, University of Central Oklahoma, USAThesis: Breaking up with college: Senior year experience Honors: MEd with Honors; College of Education Graduate Student of the Year; Adult Education
Graduate Student of the Year

Dr. April Perry is the Program Director & Assistant Professor in the M.Ed. Higher
Education Student Affairs program at Western Carolina University. Before moving to
North Carolina, she completed her PhD at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch,
New Zealand, in which her research emphasis was in Higher Education Student Development,
Career Development, and Student Transitions. As a practitioner, April has worked in
Leadership Programs, Parent & Family Programs, Fundraising & Marketing, and Academic
Tutoring Services. She is passionate about student development in the college years
and lives by the motto that 'the only thing better than watching someone grow is helping
them grow.' In 2016, April received the WCU Graduate School’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring, and in 2017, she was named Outstanding Professional in Graduate and Professional Student Services, an award presented by the AGAPSS Knowledge Community of NASPA.

I live by the motto that the only thing better than watching someone grow is helping
them grow. This motto reflects my teaching philosophy, and what I believe to be my
role as an educator. While the mission of educational institutions is to educate the
next generation of citizenry to be the critical conscience of society, I believe it
is essential for educators to also prepare students for their futures by equipping
them with professional, practical, and personal transferable skills. I also believe
that educators have a role in helping students gain a realistic perspective of their
employment opportunities, which must start early in a student’s academic pursuits.
By helping students better manage their expectations of life-after-college and equipping
them with skills to be lifelong learners, they will become more critically engaged
in their local communities and the global society. Teaching, training, and facilitating
learning environments allow me to fulfill what I believe to be fundamental responsibilities
of any educator. Those responsibilities are based on providing learners with an educative
and challenging environment where curiosity is awakened, intrinsic motivation and
active/collaborative learning (the co-construction of meaning) are evident, and the
greater connection comes from critical analysis and reflection on both the students’
personal experiences and the course content.

As a learning community (like the HESA program), knowledge acquisition and the co-creation
of meaning heavily relies on each person’s attendance and engagement in the course
work and discussion. I do not view myself as the “knower” of information who lectures
as a “sage on a stage.” Rather, I take on the role of a facilitator, a “guide on the
side” that encourages students to pull from their own and others’ lived experience
to interpret course materials and co-create meaning. This complements my personal
teaching philosophy as well as the HESA Program mission, goals, and outcomes.

Research Interests:

Student Development

Student Transitions

Career Development/Preparation

Career Transitions

Leadership Development

Student Involvement and Engagement

Institutional Strategies that promote student success

The Role of Higher Education in the 21 st Century

The Value of a Degree

Faculty Transitions

Faculty-Student Mentor Relationships

Research Projects Underway:

I recently conducted a follow-up study (qualitative interviews) with the original
participants in my PhD research (5 years since previous data was collected) in effort
to explore graduates and their transition after college from a longitudinal perspective.
(Data analysis underway; 2 manuscripts under review and 1 manuscript in draft form).

Based on my interests in researching identity development and transitions, I am the
PI (working with two colleagues) on a qualitative study informed by auto-ethnographic
methodology about faculty transitions. (Data collection ongoing; 1 manuscript under review).

Methodological Alignment:

April identifies as a Qualitative Researcher and utilizes methods including, but not
limited to:

Symbolic Interactionism

Naturalistic Inquiry

Narrativity/Narratology

Case Study

Ethnography (including auto-ethnography)

Phenomenology

Action Research

Publications:

McDonough, B., & Perry, A. (in press, 2018). Collecting to the core: Essential works to support college
student development. Against the Grain, February Issue.

Gardner, P., & Perry, A. (2012). Transitioning into the 21st century workplace: Will seniors be ready? In M. S. Hunter, J. R. Keup, J. Kinzie,
& H. Maietta (Eds.), The Senior Year Experience: Culminating Experiences and Transitions(pp. 135-154). Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, National Resource
Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.